2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The silvery hole is a rather dangerous polyphagous pest. The population of these scoundrels is capable of destroying almost the entire garden or even forest plantations in a short time. Their range of taste preferences includes a wide variety of deciduous trees, but they are especially loved by the hole silver birch, oak and fruit trees. As a rule, in warm years, these parasites attack plantings from June to September. If there are too many caterpillars on the trees, then their death is almost predetermined
Meet the pest
The silvery hole is a pretty silvery-white butterfly of relatively small size - its wingspan is only 0.5 mm. The fluffy heads of voracious pests are painted in yellow-brown tones, and small marks of similar shades can be seen on the back of their wings. These patterns resemble the moon in shape, which gave rise to the name of the harmful butterflies. The bizarre color helps the villains disguise themselves as broken twigs. The silvery hole sitting on the shoot can be easily confused with a broken off twig - this helps the pests to protect themselves from various insectivorous birds.
Not only the butterflies themselves, but also their egg-laying are characterized by excellent camouflage. The eggs laid by harmful parasites are endowed with rather flat bases and are multi-colored. The tops of the eggs are usually light-colored while the bottoms are grass-colored. Such color schemes help the egg-laying to remain unnoticed for all kinds of lovers to feast on them.
Small yellow stripes run along the bodies of dark brown caterpillars of the silvery hole, and all segments of their bodies are separated by tiny bands. And on the large glossy heads of pests there are funny yellow specks. All caterpillars are rather fleecy, covered with dense bristles and grow up to 35 mm in length. As for the size of pupae, it is almost equal to the size of adult butterflies and is about 50 mm. Pupae are characterized by a brownish color and have four miniature processes at the bottom.
Appearing in gardens at the very beginning of summer, harmful parasites begin to lay eggs, attaching them to the backs of the leaves. Each clutch contains an average of fifty eggs, however, there are also much more solid clutches. Approximately two weeks later, tiny yellow caterpillars with small black dots on the body appear from the eggs. They immediately begin to skeletonize the leaves, and the grown individuals destroy the leaves entirely. The pests stay in the caterpillar stage for about fifty days, and then they leave the trees and pupate in the soil at a depth of about five centimeters. Slightly less often, caterpillars can deepen by ten centimeters. It is noteworthy that the pupae of the silvery hole are able to stay in the soil from one to three years. And after this time, butterflies begin to appear on the sites.
How to fight
If there are not very many harmful caterpillars on the trees, they can be collected manually and immediately destroyed. True, this measure cannot be called an effective way of fighting. A much better effect is given by dusting with DDT and HCH - as a rule, they are carried out on very large areas. And in small orchards, fruit trees can be treated with a 20% solution of HCH, DDT, or KMME. In addition, trees are allowed to be sprayed with Metaphos, Chlorophos and some other organophosphorus preparations.
In the summer, it is recommended to loosen the soil under the trees, and the most important preventive measures will be digging up near-trunk strips and autumn plowing.
The silver hole has many natural enemies. The main enemies of these pests are Trichogramma egg-eaters. Pupae are often enjoyed by various rodents, including mice. In addition, sometimes pupae die from fungal diseases. But pest caterpillars are so well protected that even birds are not interested in them.
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